Only two honeyaters in Australia build a dome-shaped nest, The Brown-backed and the Bar-breasted. In Australia, Brown-backed Honeyeaters are restricted to coastal north-eastern Queensland from Cape York south to near Townsville. They also occur in New Guinea and some islands to the north. In Australia they inhabit woodland in damp places, fringing creeks, rivers or mangroves and in particular, paperbark swamps. In the southern part of their range they appear to be migratory, arriving in the spring to breed and heading north again in winter. Otherwise their movements are locally nomadic, seeking out flowering trees and shrubs.

When nesting they sometimes nest as isolated pairs, but when conditions are ideal they have been known to group together in loose colonies with up to fifty nests or so in a few acres. This has been recorded ( and studied) on Townsville common.